WASHINGTON – Today, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following response to the Office of Management and Budget’s Impacts and Costs of the Government Shutdown. For more information on the report, please click here.

“Today’s report on the impact and cost of the government shutdown unfortunately confirms what many of us already knew – that a handful of Congressional Republicans' insistence on shutting down our government to make a political point was both unnecessary and also extremely hurtful to our country's economic wellbeing. Our inability to come to timely agreements on spending comes at a high cost – in dollars, jobs, and productivity levels - as well as in the morale of the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who were hurt by Congress' inability to do our most basic job -- fund the government. This kind of crisis governing lurching from one fiscal crisis to the next represents a bicameral and bipartisan failure of leadership. Now, it is more important than ever that we in Congress show the American people our ability to compromise and our capacity to lead. Despite the setbacks we face in light of October’s shutdown, I remain eternally optimistic that our upcoming budget negotiations will yield an agreement that puts our nation on a financially responsible path and restores the faith of the American people. I hope this report reinforces our understanding of the deep and harmful impact the shutdown had on our nation and economy and helps bring this irresponsible behavior to an end.”